Friday, June 16. 2006

OSGeo in Wired

A Wired article covers a UAV and other goodies, but spends most of its electrons on OSGeo and why you can do more with open source than via Google's APIs. Schuyler Erle explains:

We can browse Google Maps, but the look and feel of those maps is fixed. We want the flexibility to tell our own stories with maps. What's exciting is the ability to do your own cartography, to put your own labels on and show your own roads.

He goes on:

We want map-analysis tools to be as ubiquitous as spreadsheets. Everybody should be able to do geo-analysis.

It's great that OSGeo got so much play in the mainstream press. I will say that I believe there are lots of folks who do want/need to just put dots on the map, just as there are many who need just to add up a few numbers.